The Paris Climate Deal Is About Acquiring Power

When Friday, Nov. 4 hits in a few weeks, headlines may be so hijacked by the impending presidential election that they miss the other news set to happen that day — the UN’s Paris Climate Agreement will take effect. Or, if you’re Barack Obama, the world will embark on the “best possible shot” at saving the planet. Because planetary survival has always hinged on UN-dictated meteorological engineering.

The Paris Agreement is the UN scheme under which participating countries must work to cut greenhouse gas emissions to keep global temperatures increases “well-below” two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. By comparison, the UN has predicted that based on current trends, temperatures will rise by at least three degrees by 2100. In other words, the UN is hamstringing the global economy for the sake of one degree.

One can only hope the UN already has a pledge of cooperation from the sun for the next 84 years since evidence suggests sunspot activity may actually impact earth’s temperature more than human industry. Shocking, we know.

To go into effect, the agreement requires sign-on by 55 countries representing at least 55% of global emissions. The deal becomes effective 30 days from the date this threshold is reached. The U.S. and China, which together account for about 38% of the world’s emissions, had already signed onto the deal, with dozens of other countries doing the same. On Tuesday, the EU gave its assent, bringing 28 nations and pushing the tally above the deal’s requirement.

As we noted before, the Paris agreement is merely one part — albeit a big one — of Obama’s effort to centralize control. A side benefit is that it will obliterate the coal industry via death by regulation. Of course, with the Paris deal, he’s gone global with his regulatory fanaticism. Sure, environmental scaremongers à la Al Gore may paint the issue as one of survival — after all, if John Kerry is to be believed, battling climate change is equivalent to fighting the Islamic State — but the real issue is power. Why else would global leaders trip over themselves in a mad dash to implement a deal that will save a measly degree in temperature?

But fabricate a crisis of cosmic proportions, identify government mandates as the only solution, and voila: power.

And that’s not the half of it.

In typical “I have a pen” fashion, Obama specifically avoided the Senate while climate cavorting with the UN. He never gained Senate approval for the deal, giving a thumbs up to the agreement with one hand while flipping the bird to the Constitution with the other. Not quite tickled at Congress being cut out of international treaties, some Republican leaders challenged Obama. But the White House of course claims the agreement isn’t a treaty so Obama can assent via executive action. A fast way to get around that pesky supreme law of the land.

Of course, since it’s “not a treaty,” the Paris agreement carries little enforcement mechanism in the U.S., the one bright spot if there is one.

Still, fast-tracking the deal to make sure it goes into effect before POTUS #45 takes office and possibly blocks it was, undoubtedly, intentional.

With Obama exiting the White House soon (but not soon enough), his successor could technically withdraw from the deal, since it was approved via presidential pen stroke rather than Senate ratification. Hillary Clinton, of course, wouldn’t pull out, but Donald Trump has said he would. But this might be easier said than done. Per the agreement, signatory nations can withdraw with one year’s notice only after three years from the deal’s effective date. Fortune reports that Trump could bypass this requirement by pulling out of the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, thereby withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris deal as well. Yet even this underscores the ridiculousness of pledging allegiance to the UN in the first place.

For now, suffice it to say that if a one-degree mark on a thermostat can trigger global mandates that kill industries and drive people out of work, it’s a clear sign the Left will use anything as an excuse to seize power.

"Born in other countries, yet believing you could be happy in this, our laws acknowledge, as they should do, your right to join us in society, conforming, as I doubt not you will do, to our established rules." —Thomas Jefferson (1801)

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